


Landing On Your Feet

by Adsdragonlover



Series: Urban Fantasy AU (Cat!Gavin) [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Bastet Goddess of Cats, Cat!Gavin, Cradling your bro in your arms, Critical Role reference, Demigods, Elijah is a dick, First Kiss, Gunshot Wounds, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, RK900’s Name is Nines, Supernatural AU - Freeform, Temporary Character Death, Urban Fantasy, being emotionally numb, bonding moment, mentions of temporary child death, needing time to process, not in the way you think tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:28:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23579944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adsdragonlover/pseuds/Adsdragonlover
Summary: Gavin wakes up alone on the table in a morgue. He’s alive, but how? And what happened to Nines?An urban fantasy Reed900 AU featuring Cat!Gavin but not in the way you’re expecting.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: Urban Fantasy AU (Cat!Gavin) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697377
Comments: 17
Kudos: 99





	Landing On Your Feet

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Mentions of temporary child death, mentions of temporary character death

Gavin wakes up alone. It’s cold. Fucking freezing. And he’s entirely naked. And, he realizes as he looks around, he’s in a morgue. Great. Just great. Fucking peachy. He sits up and fights off the impending panic to reach down and rip off his toe tag. “Gavin C. Reed” it reads.

He groans and looks around for clothes. There’s nothing. Nada. Zip. He lets out a heavy sigh. This sucks monumental ass. 

He gets up off the table and stands up, taking the sheet they’d been using to cover his body and making it into a makeshift towel. That’s when he notices the new scar on his chest.

He remembers quite suddenly how he- how he died. They’d been chasing down a perp. But it was a trap. A horrible, horrible trap. They were outnumbered. They aimed for Nines and he’d jumped in front and- Nines! 

His panic feels more real now. He doesn’t know what happened to Nines. He runs out the door and ignores the wail of the alarm going off. Then he’s outside. It’s dark out. And he figures he’s too fast to be a zombie. Probably. God, he has no idea how he’s alive. 

He looks around frantically, trying to figure out where he is. Finally he catches sight of the street sign and he figures out where he is. He races toward it and lets out a sigh of relief when he sees a lone teenager playing basketball nearby. 

“Hey kid. I need to borrow your phone.” The kid looks up at him with a sneer that quickly slides off his face at the sight of Gavin. He self consciously pulls the sheet up to hide the fact that he’s  _ covered  _ in blood. “Just give it here.” He growls. 

The kid freaks out and hands him his phone. Gavin nods and lets out a gruff “thanks” before quickly dialing up Nines’ serial number and putting his ear to the phone. 

“Hello?” Comes Nines’ cool voice and Gavin lets out a sigh of relief. 

“Thank god you’re alive. Nines I need your help.”

There’s the familiar sound of the line going dead and Gavin curses. “Phck!” He mutters, dialing the number again. 

It rings several times before “I don’t know who the  _ fuck  _ you think you are but I’m not playing these games. It’s not.  _ Fucking. Funny.”  _ And Gavin panics. 

“Shit, no! Pleasedon’thangup!” He all but shouts. 

There’s a pause but the line hasn’t gone dead yet, which is a start. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.”

Gavin panics and decides to do something either really smart or monumentally fucking stupid. “You’re scared that no one will ever treat you as an equal. Or with kindness. You’re scared you’ll only ever be a tool in their eyes. An intimidation object. You’re scared that’s all you’ll ever be to people. And you’re upset that Connor gets what you want so easily. You don’t want to admit it but you told me. I was pretty drunk at the time but I had opened up to you about how insecure being related to Eli makes me feel so you told me how you felt about being ‘related’ to Connor. Listen, Nines I swear to god it’s me. Please don’t hang up. I need help.”

Silence. 

A shaky exhale. 

And then, “Gavin?”

Gavin lets out a sigh of relief. “Yeah, Tin Can it’s me. Look, I need you to pick me up. I’m at the corner of Greenfield and Broadway.”

“How- how are you alive?”

“I have no fucking idea but I just broke out of the morgue so I  _ really  _ need you to come get me.”

“Alright. I’ll be there in 9 minutes.” Nines says before the line goes dead. 

Gavin sighs and hands the phone back to the kid. “Thanks, kid.” He says. The frightened teenager just nods before running off. 

Which, fair.   
  


* * *

In 9 minutes Nines pulls up in his car, and Gavin quickly gets in. “Thanks, Nines.” He says. 

“Gavin- I.” Nines stops. “What do you remember?” 

“Not a lot.” Gavin admits. “I remember getting shot and you doing a lot of shooting and a couple other things but not much else.” He sighs and digs the heels of his palms into his closed eyes. “This is fucking crazy.”

“I- yes. Yes it is. Gavin I watched you  _ die.  _ I held you as you bled out.” His voice is thick with emotion. “Do you not remember anything after you got shot?”

Gavin shrugs. “Bits and pieces. I remember you saying my name and telling me to hold on. But it gets really fuzzy after that. Probably from the blood loss.”

Nines nods before making a sharp u-turn. “Wait what?” Gavin asks. “Dude both of our apartments are  _ that  _ way.” He says, pointing in the direction they had previously been going. “Where the fuck are you taking me?” He asks. 

“To the only person who might know something about how you’re still alive.”

* * *

“Aw, fuck.” Gavin says as they approach Kamski’s mansion. Yeah it makes sense but really?

Nines parks the car and they walk out. Before they can even knock on the door it opens, and it’s not even a Chloe who does it. It’s Elijah. And he looks so much like the brother Gavin remembers that it almost hurts. 

He’s dressed in a faded Star Trek t-shirt and wearing too long sweatpants. That added with his glasses and the exhausted look in his eyes tells Gavin something is off. 

“Gavin.” Eli says. “RK900. I’ve been expecting you. Come in.”

And Gavin reluctantly does so. 

* * *

“I’m sorry, we’re  _ what?”  _ Gavin repeats, incredulous. 

Elijah lets out a heavy sigh. “We’re descendants of Bastet, also known as Bast. The Egyptian goddess of cats. It comes from our dad’s side of the family. We have nine lives. And you, now, only have seven”

Gavin blinks. “But I just died. Shouldn’t that mean I have eight?” 

Elijah sighs again and it’s so fucking  _ condescending  _ he wants to punch him. “You died when you were 5.”

“I did what now?”

“Really, Gavin must I repeat everything to you?” He says, irritated. “Yes. We were playing in the backyard. The one with the pool, you remember. We were playing very close to the edge. Tag, I believe it was. When I tagged you you fell into the deep end. You couldn’t swim and neither could I.” He paused and looks Gavin dead in the eye. “You died.” 

Gavin feels like he’s in shock, he looks at Nines who’s LED flashes red at the word ‘died’ before returning to a steady yellow. 

“I of course ran for father and mother. But by the time we’d returned you had drowned. You were just floating there on the water, limp. Father did nothing. He just picked you up out of the pool, changed you into dry clothes, laid you in your bed and told me you would wake up in a couple of days. And you did.” He shakes his head. “Come on Gavin, you must have noticed  _ something _ . You are a detective after all.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Gavin asks, crossing his arms defensively over his chest. 

Elijah sighs again. “You act like a cat. You’re unusually agile for a human, you’re not very fond of dogs, you don’t really like getting wet, and you almost always land on your feet. Not to mention you had the consistent habit of knocking things off of tables just to annoy people when you were younger.” He smirks at the memory. 

Gavin shook his head. “This is fucking crazy.  _ You’re _ fucking  _ crazy  _ Eli!” He shouts and Elijah’s eyes darken. 

“I’m not. You’re just being too stubborn to accept the facts.” He sighs like he’s disappointed, shaking his head. “After all this time you’re still just a scared little boy.” He says and Gavin lunges for him, barely held back by Nines. 

“It’s not worth it, Gavin.” Nines mutters. 

“You fucking say that again you piece of shit!” Gavin hisses and Elijah tsks. 

“See? You even hiss like a cat when provoked.”

Gavin feels fucking furious and he hates how just Nines putting a hand on his shoulder makes him feel better. 

“Well what the fuck am I supposed to do now? I can’t just go back to work, everyone thinks I’m dead!”

“Why not?” Elijah counters cooly, eyes drifting lazily over to Nines. “You did that with RK900 here and it worked out perfectly.”

Gavin bristles. “Yeah, cause that’s gonna work on a whole building full of cops.” 

Elijah shrugs. “I can pull a few strings to alter some medical documents. Make it look like a mistake that you died. I can also bribe the captain to have him overlook it.”

“That’s illegal.”

“Do you have any other suggestions?” Elijah asks, raising a perfectly manicured eyebrow. He tuts when Gavin says nothing. “I didn’t think so.”

“We could always tell them the truth.” Nines offers and Gavin whips his head around to look at him. 

“Are you crazy?” He hisses. “What part of that seems like a good idea?”

“When presented with all the evidence and all the other options ruled out, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” He says. And of fucking course he’d quote Sherlock Holmes at him. 

“Nines this isn’t like a simple case of lycanthropy. Or even vampirism. I’m apparently descended from a god. That’s kind of above what is considered the norm.”

“Well vampires rise from the dead. It’s not that unusual.” He counters. 

Elijah watches the two of them with amusement in his eyes. “You two bicker like an old married couple.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Gavin says while Nines says “That’s fair.”

Gavin can’t decide whether to be irritated that Nines just agreed with Elijah or embarrassed that Nines thinks they act like an old married couple. 

Nines looks over at Gavin and shrugs. “I mean, we did share a rather intense bonding moment. I cradled him in my arms.”

Gavin gapes at him. Does he remember that? Vaguely. Is he going to admit to that with Eli right there, watching? Hell fucking no. He sputters indignantly. “What? I- no. No, I don’t remember that. So it didn’t happen.”

His chest constricts painfully when Nines sends him an almost hurt expression, but he forcefully ignores that. He can address it later.

“Whatever.” Eli says dismissively. “You two obviously have shit to work out. I’ll talk to the captain. You two figure your plan out.” He says, standing up from the luxurious chair he’d been seated in. “Chloe?” He says. 

“Yes Elijah?” She responds and Gavin jumps slightly because he had  _ not  _ noticed she was there. 

“Lead them out.” Elijah says.

“Of course, Elijah.” Chloe replies before starting to herd them out of the room and towards the front door. 

“Sorry about him. He  _ does _ care.” She says apologetically. “He was frantic when he heard that you’d died. He wasn’t able to get to you before you’d woken up however.” She sighs. “He was very worried.”

“Yeah well he’s got a real funny way of showing it.” Gavin grumbles, still on edge. 

Chloe smiles softly. “I know. Please don’t hesitate to call, Gavin. We’re always here for you.”

Gavin shifts awkwardly from foot to foot. “Yeah. I’ll uh- keep that in mind.” He says before grabbing Nines by the elbow and leading him out the door. 

* * *

  
  


As soon as they’re alone and in the car the tension slowly bleeds out of his body. “I kinda remember that.” He says before Nines can speak. “You holding me. It felt nice. I just didn’t want to admit anything with Eli there.” He admits. 

Nines’ expression softens into a look that can only be described as ‘incredibly fond’. Gavin looks away, not sure he deserves to be on the receiving end of a look like that. “I understand, Gavin. I’m sorry for putting you on the spot like that.” Nines apologizes. 

Gavin brushes it off. “It’s whatever.” He says with a shrug.

* * *

  
  


“So what are we going to do?” He asks later, still driving. 

“I’m not sure. I think telling the truth is our best bet, but in the end it’s up to you to decide.” 

Gavin huffs. “Yeah. That’s a lot of responsibility.” He sighs and runs his hands down his face. “Might as well call Tina.” He says. 

Nines nods and dials her number, putting her on speakerphone through the car. 

“Hey Nines.” Comes Tina’s voice through the speaker, and Gavin’s stomach twists. She sounds despondent. 

“Tina. I have some… news for you.” Nines says. “You may want to sit down.”

“Whatever it is, it’s not going to shock me enough that I’ll fall over.” Tina responds. 

Nines shoots Gavin a ‘go ahead’ look. “Hey T.” Gavin says. 

There’s the distinct but muffled sound of a crash. “Shit!” Comes Tina’s voice. And then there’s shuffling noises before- “Gav?”

“Surprise?” Gavin says. 

There’s several moments of silence. 

“You piece of shit!” Tina yells, voice cracking. “You  _ died! _ How the  _ fuck  _ are you alive?” She demands. “Nines I swear to god if this is some fucked up idea of a joke I’ll melt you down into a microwave don’t fucking test me.” 

Nines chuckles despite the threat. “That’s what I thought as well. But it’s the truth.”

“Yeah T. I’m alive. Again.” He says. “So it turns out I’m a descendant of the goddess of cats.” 

More silence. “You’re shitting me, right?”

Gavin chuckles. “God, I wish. But no. I’m related to Bastet, or Bast as some people called her.” He sighs. “It’s fucking crazy. But apparently I have nine lives. Like cats. I always thought that was superstition but there’s fucking werewolves in the world so what do I know?” He mutters. 

He can hear Tina laughing breathlessly. “This is fucking crazy.”

“Yeah I know.”

“Don’t you ever fucking scare me like that again.” She says, voice suddenly fierce. “Or I’ll tear you limb from limb.” She threatens. And Gavin believes it. Tina’s a shifter. She doesn’t even need to be in her owl form to do it. Or even her half form. She’d tear him apart in all her 5’4” glory. And it’d be terrifying. 

“Got it. Okay.” He says quickly. “So imma try to come in to work tomorrow. Maybe give people a bit of a heads up so they don’t try to shoot me? I’d come back apparently but I only have 7 lives left.”

“Okay.” Tina says, sounding concerned. “But please be careful anyway.” 

“I will, T. Thanks.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” She says fondly. “Goodnight.”

Then the line goes dead. 

* * *

  
“I’m taking you back to my apartment.” Nines says. “Your cats are already there. I adopted them after you-“ he pauses like it hurts him to say it. “after you died.” 

“Oh.” Gavin says. “I- thank you.”

“It’s no problem.” Nines responds. 

* * *

The rest of the drive is spent in silence. Soon they’re parking in front of the apartment building. Nines makes no move to get out. “Gavin.” He says, just as Gavin’s trying the car door, locked. 

“Nines, what the fuck?”

“Gavin I need to talk to you.” He says, LED going from blue to yellow. 

“And we can't do that in the apartment?” Gavin asks, irritated. 

“No, I- I’m afraid I’ll lose my nerve.” He says and reaches out for Gavin’s wrist. 

It’s a purposefully loose grip. So Gavin could easily break out if it. But he doesn’t. Instead he stills and looks at Nines. “Okay. I’m listening.”

Nines swallows nervously. A human trait that he must have picked up at some point. Gavin’s never noticed it before. He finds his eyes follow the movement of his Adam’s Apple bobbing before he realizes what he’s doing and looks back up at Nines, who’s moved his hand to Gavin’s and started rubbing circles onto the back of his hand, avoiding his eyes and just staring at their hands. 

“Nines-” He starts. 

“I told you something.” Nines says quickly, interrupting him. “When you-“ he looks up at Gavin again, and they lock eyes. “When you were dying.” 

Gavin knows this. He knows Nines said something to him. But the memory is too blurry to make out. Deep in his gut though, he knows where this is going and he tenses almost imperceptibly. There’s no way. 

“I-“ Nines begins. “I told you that I loved you.” He says quietly, keeping his eyes on Gavin’s. Gavin however can’t quite take it and he looks away. “Because I do. I love you.”

And Gavin wants to respond. He really does. The words _‘I love you too’_ are right there. Right on the tip of his tongue. But it’s too much. There’s too much. This whole _day_ has been too much. So he takes the coward’s way out and says nothing. 

He hears Nines sigh, and his heart twists uncomfortably at how heartbroken it sounds. “I see.” He says, letting go of Gavin’s hand. “I apologize. I won’t let it interfere with our partnership.” And then he unlocks the door and leaves the car. 

He wants to chase after him. Wants to grab his hand, pull him down into a kiss and tell Nines that he loves him too. But he can’t move. He just feels numb. 

So he just opens the car door and vows to himself that he’ll tell him tomorrow. Because he can’t stand the cold, closed off expression on Nines’ face any more than he can the dejected sigh that he had made in the car. 

* * *

  
They go inside the building silently, Nines’ LED lighting up the hallway in front of his apartment door in yellow. Gavin winces. Nines unlocks the door and holds it open for Gavin, who walks inside quietly, feeling on edge. 

Immediately Frumpkin and Princess run up to him, rubbing against him and he grins. “Hi babies. I missed you too.” He says, kneeling down to scratch behind their ears. “We’re more alike than I thought you know.” He says. 

He sees Nines take off his coat and hang it on the coat rack by the door. He sighs and bites hard at his lip. No crying. Nope. No crying. 

He pulls away from the cats, looking down at himself, covered in blood, most of it his own, and wearing only a body bag as clothing. “I’m going to go take a shower and put on some actual clothes.” He says quietly. 

Nines nods but says nothing else and Gavin’s heart breaks a little. He doesn’t want this. He hates this. 

He heads to the bathroom and turns on the shower, standing underneath the stream of hot water. He watches the water turn pink as it falls down his body. Eventually the water goes back to being clear, he’s no longer covered in blood, and the water’s begun to turn cold. So he turns off the shower and steps out. 

His heart does a little flip when he sees clean clothes left out for him on the counter. It’s got his own hoodie too. He remembers leaving it here. And pajama pants that are too long to belong to anyone but Nines. 

He pads out of the bathroom in Nines’ too long pajama pants and his own oversized hoodie to a heart wrenching sight. Nines is curled up on the couch, Frumpkin in his arms and Princess laying over his feet as his shoulders convulse with dry, silent sobs. He clutches at Frumpkin and no, no Gavin can’t take this. 

He marches over and kneels down in front of Nines, who refuses to look him in the eye, LED swirling red yellow red. “Nines” he whispers. 

Nines glances at him briefly before returning to petting Frumpkin, letting himself be soothed by his purrs. 

“Nines, I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine.” Nines replies, voice cold and closed-off. “I-“ he falters “I had thought- had  _ hoped _ that you felt the same. I was wrong. It’s my fault.” 

No, no Gavin can’t take this. He reaches out and grabs one of Nines’ hands. “No, Nines.” He says. “You weren’t wrong.” 

Nines looks at their hands but refuses to meet his eyes. “Nines, I’m sorry. It’s just- this is. This is a lot. All in one day. I was dead and now I’m not and now I’m related to a god. And then you told me you loved me and it- it was too much.” He admits softly. “I was too overwhelmed to tell you that I love you too.” He whispers. And Nines finally looks up at him, meeting his eyes. “Nines, I love you too.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Gavin promises. “I’m sorry that I hurt you. I just needed some time to process it all.”

“I understand. I should’ve predicted that as a possibility.”

Gavin chuckles and squeezes Nines’ hand before he brings it up to his mouth and presses a kiss to it. “Forgive me?”

“Of course.” Nines responds instantly. He slowly uncurls from his closed-off position on the couch and reaches a hand out to cup Gavin’s cheek, Frumpkin jumping off his lap and wandering away. “Gavin.” He says quietly. “Gavin I- may I kiss you?” He asks. 

Gavin covers the hand Nines has on his face with his own. “Please.” He murmurs. 

Nines leans in to kiss him and Gavin meets him halfway. 

* * *

  
There’s a lot to do tomorrow. Explanations to be had, confused coworkers to deal with, and settling in to his new reality. But for now all of tomorrow’s worries fade away. For now they have each other. And for tonight, that’s all they need.

**Author's Note:**

> So! That’s it for my urban fantasy AU! Let me know if you guys want me to continue this au so we get to see Gavin meeting up with the rest of the DPD. Hank’s obviously a were-bear by the way. Also if you caught the reference to a certain tv show before said certain tv show went bad, good on you! Take a cookie. You earned it. Please leave kudos if you liked it and consider leaving a comment to tell me what you thought. I am a slut for validation.


End file.
